Mother of Raman Pratasevich, imprisoned in Minsk, says: ‘They’re going to kill him in there.’ Plus, George Floyd’s family urges Joe Biden to pass policing billGood morningThe parents of Raman Pratasevich, the opposition journalist arrested from the commercial Ryanair plane that the Belarus president personally ordered his military to scramble a MiG-29 fighter to intercept, are calling upon the international community to help free him. Continue reading...

An opposing coach made a comment about the WNBA All-Star’s weight during a game. It took the everyday callousness of sports one step furtherThink, first, of a person you dislike – or even despise, if you’re the despising type. Now think of the cruelest thing you could say to that person, the sentence or two you know would cut to their marrow, take them out at the knees, squeeze the air from their lungs.If you’re thinking of a woman, there’s a good chance you’re crafting an insult about her weight, imagining the look on her face when you ask her if she’s put on a few pounds during quarantine or mention the flab on the back of her arms. That’s a guaranteed gut-punch, because for many women, no matter how often we’re told our value lies in more than our appearance, we still default to a dress size or a number on a scale. We can be brilliant, successful, in the happiest relationship. But we will be felled by a mention of fat. Continue reading...

Amazon’s global infrastructure is held together by exploitation of those who operate it. And workers are pushing backAmazon, the world’s most powerful corporation, is an iceberg. Users and consumers see its top: the shops, the streaming service, the packages. But below the surface lies an enormous infrastructure, stretching across continents, linking production, distribution and delivery. A complex transnational system, populated by workers around the world whose labor drives Amazon’s profits.Its chief executive and founder, Jeff Bezos, the world’s richest man, tries to conceal this system with the comfort and entertainment his services offer. The reason is equally clear and outrageous. From the factories where the products it sells are made, to the doorsteps where they are delivered, Amazon’s global infrastructure is held together by the exploitation of those who operate it. Continue reading...

Many business owners of color are still struggling to make ends meet – or have already shuttered – after their clients were ravaged by CovidAt a block party in Bell, California, a predominantly Latino Los Angeles suburb, food trucks, jewelry booths and other eclectic vendors lined the roads and walkways earlier this month.Multi-generational families brought their abuelitas and teenage kids, savoring the perceived unwinding of a more than year-long pandemic. Continue reading...

The detention of Raman Pratasevich shows how far the Belarusian dictator-president will go to shut down protestOn Sunday, three secret service agents and a Belarusian fighter jet “hijacked” a Ryanair plane from Athens as it crossed Belarusian airspace, just minutes before it reached Lithuania. The target was an opposition journalist, Raman Pratasevich, who helps run the Telegram channel Nexta, the main voice of the Belarusian opposition, many of whom are now in exile in Lithuania and Poland. This seems to be Belarus’s equivalent of a Litvinenko or Navalny moment – a message to the opposition that no one is safe from the regime, whether at home or abroad.From detention in the Belarusian capital, Minsk, Pratasevich was forced to make what looks like a hostage video, “admitting” to organising mass disturbances and appearing as if he had been badly beaten. Pratasevich, however, is just one of hundreds of political prisoners detained in Belarus since mass protests against a rigged election in August 2020. This extraordinary act of piracy is therefore three things: it is dictator-president Alexander Lukashenko’s attempt to completely shut down the ongoing protests against his 27-year rule (Pratasevich is 26); it is a dramatic internationalisation of what had been largely a domestic problem; and an open show of contempt for the ability of the Europe and the US to do anything about it. Continue reading...

‘Political inaccuracies’ in Arkansas junior high school yearbook included saying racial protests in US were ‘Black Lives Matter riots’A school principal in Arkansas has apologized for “political inaccuracies” in a yearbook falsely stating that Donald Trump was not impeached and that last year’s racial protests in the US were “Black Lives Matter riots”.Josh Thompson, principal of Bentonville’s Lincoln junior high school, admitted that some of the contents of the yearbook, which also included a photograph of the deadly 6 January insurrection in Washington DC captioned: “Trump supporters protest at the Capitol,” were “both biased and political”. Continue reading...

Thousands of people have marked the firstanniversary of George Floyd's deathwith marches and vigils across the US. Large crowds gathered in New York and Los Angeles while in Minneapolis, the city Floyd died in, he was honoured with a moment's silence. Mourners also gathered later at Minneapolis's George Floyd Memorial Square for a candlelight vigil

An Associated Press journalist had to duck for cover during a report from George Floyd Memorial Square in Minneapolis as gunshots rang out nearby. Philip Crowther was covering the first anniversary of George Floyd’s death from the intersection where Floyd died and reported hearing about 30 gunshots from two blocks away. Local authorities later reported one person was treated for a non life-threatening gunshot wound. Marches and vigils were held across the US to mark one year since George Floyd's death Continue reading...

Residents gathered across the city to honor Floyd and other victims of police violence, and vowed to hold officers accountableIn downtown Minneapolis, the city that was plagued with tension during the Derek Chauvin murder trial last month, a celebration of George Floyd’s life was held less than a mile from where the white former Minneapolis officer was convicted of all three counts of his murder.The event, organized by the George Floyd Memorial Foundation, was filled with shrieks from children as they leapt in bouncy houses while others filled the air with bubbles. The smells from a dozen food trucks penetrated the space as people danced and basked in the sun. Continue reading...

Darnella Frazier described the lasting trauma and grief she’s faced: ‘I used to shake so bad at night my mother had to rock me to sleep’A year after she recorded George Floyd’s murder on her cellphone, Darnella Frazier, now 18, released a public statement about her lasting grief over Floyd’s death, and how the trauma has affected her and her nine-year-old cousin, who also witnessed the murder.“I used to shake so bad at night my mother had to rock me to sleep,” Frazier wrote in a statement posted to Facebook on Tuesday, the anniversary of Floyd’s death. Continue reading...

Floyd’s brother describes Biden as a ‘genuine guy’ but urged him to pass a law ‘to protect people of color’ at White House meeting

The family of George Floyd spoke to reporters after meeting Joe Biden and Kamala Harris on Tuesday to commemorate the anniversary of his murder. They addressed the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, which they called for Congress to pass.Philonise Floyd said: ‘If you can make federal laws to protect the [national] bird, which is the bald eagle, you can make federal laws to protect people of colour’

The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, has announced that the US would reopen its consulate in Jerusalem after it was downgraded by the Trump administration, and will provide an additional $75m to help rebuild Gaza. Speaking alongside the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, in the West Bank city of Ramallah, he also promised to 'continue to rebuild' the US's relationship with Palestinians, and repeated comments from Biden that both Israelis and Palestinians should 'enjoy equal measures of freedom, opportunity, and democracy, to be treated with dignity'

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Rallies marking anniversary of Floyd’s killing to take place across US. Plus, father of Belarusian journalist says his son was forced to record confessionGood morning.One year ago, the world watched in horror as George Floyd was murdered while handcuffed on the ground, a now-former Minneapolis police officer’s knee on his neck. Since then a racial reckoning has swept the nation, with a summer of demonstrations and marches in cities and towns big and small. Continue reading...

Mayoral candidate’s wife Evelyn condemns ‘racist disfiguration of Andrew Yang as a tourist’ that appeared in New York Daily NewsThe New York mayoral candidate Andrew Yang, who has drawn fire for not voting in city elections and for having a second home upstate, was mocked as a “tourist” by some on Monday after naming Times Square as his favorite subway station.One political cartoon published by the New York Daily News showed Yang emerging from the station while a bystander quipped “the tourists are back”. Evelyn Yang, the candidate’s wife, was outraged. Continue reading...

The US secretary of state has arrived in Jerusalem at the start of a Middle East tour aimed at shoring up the Gaza ceasefire. In a joint press conference with Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, Antony Blinken said the US 'fully supports Israel's right to defend itself against attacks' such as those by Hamas. A ceasefire was called after 11 days of fighting in which 250 people were killed by Israeli airstrikes on Gaza and 12 people died when Hamas rockets struck Israel.Netanyahu spoke positively of his relationship with the US as well as a common ideal of recognising Israel as a Jewish state. Continue reading...

From long games to the lack of household names, there are a lot of reasons why MLB is losing fans. But don’t write off baseball just yetThe problems with Major League Baseball can perhaps best be summed up by an anecdote from the NBA. When the news broke that famous (and infamous) New York Yankees slugger Alex Rodriguez was part of a group purchasing the NBA’s Minnesota Timberwolves, a reporter asked shooting guard Anthony Edwards’s thoughts. “I don’t know who that is,” Edwards said in a quote that soon went viral. “I know he’s going to be the owner. But I don’t know anything about baseball.”In his defense, Edwards was all of three when the Yankees acquired A-Rod. But the fact that the 19-year-old Edwards had never heard of one of the most famous baseball players of modern times raised a familiar topic. Is baseball really fading in irrelevance? And how serious are the game’s problems? Let’s take a look at the most commonly debated issues. Continue reading...

We would like to hear from people who plan to attend a vigil to commemorate the first anniversary of the murder of George FloydVigils are to be held across the UK to mark the one-year anniversary of the murder of George Floyd, who died in Minneapolis, Minnesota on 25 May last year after a white police officer Derek Chauvin knelt on his neck for more than nine minutes.His death sparked global outcry and was the catalyst for widespread anti-racist protests across the world last summer. Thousands marched in towns and cities in the UK under the banner of Black Lives Matter while others, unable to take part in person due to the pandemic, joined in via social media. Continue reading...

No matter how skinny I made myself – and I shrunk into an anorexia of sorts – in society’s mirror I was still not small enoughAfter George Floyd was killed by the police in Minneapolis, I wrote about all the ways I have had to make myself small living here as a Black man. The question begs to be asked— are my reflections from last summer as true today as they were then? The answer is yes, for one reason: This essay was not a response to George Floyd’s murder but Philando Castile’s in 2017. That it should reappear four years later unchanged is answer enough. There are some stories that we share in the hope of never telling again, so it says something that is a retelling, of the retelling, of a story. “How long must we sing this song?” U2 sangs on Sunday Bloody Sunday. It’s a powerful question, as urgent now and it was in 1983. But the answer never comes –Marlon James*** Continue reading...

After a corruption scandal saw 12 union officials convicted of crimes, United Auto Workers members hope direct elections will bring inspiring leadersThe United Auto Workers, once America’s most powerful labor union, a union that led the way in building America’s middle class, has sunk into hard times, with a huge corruption scandal in which 12 union officials, including two former UAW presidents, have been convicted of crimes.But now many rank-and-filers are hoping the union will regain its moral stature and some of its old swagger through a major push to inject more democracy into the union. Continue reading...

The Big Apple was once a natural stop for players like Frank Lampard and Thierry Henry. But Red Bulls and NYC FC have changed tacticsNew York has always been Major League Soccer’s toughest nut to crack. Many have believed the USA’s most culturally diverse city could, with the right cultivation, become a hotbed for the sport. Yet a quarter of a century, and two franchises, later it’s impossible to avoid the sense MLS still hasn’t grasped the chance to take a big bite out the Big Apple.For years, the strategy appeared to be a simple one – attract the biggest names to draw the biggest crowds, and the most attention, possible. Thierry Henry’s arrival at the New York Red Bulls in 2010 was considered the most significant MLS signing since David Beckham. The club’s signing of Tim Cahill two years later didn’t catch the imagination in quite the same way, but still underlined an ambition to lure big names from European leagues. Continue reading...

Yes, Martin Bashir used forgery and falsehood, but the response has been an epic groundswell of hypocrisyThe BBC crashes out of the sky, again. The forgery and falsehood used by Martin Bashir to help work his way into Diana, Princess of Wales’s confidence was despicable, her sons’ outrage inevitable. It remains inexplicable that the BBC branded him still “an honourable man”, though the fateful rehiring in 2016 appears more cock-up than conspiracy: Tony Hall didn’t know until too late; James Harding, the ex-Times editor, had never heard what everyone knew about Bashir’s skulduggery. These were terrible errors, terribly covered up.But here we are again: another scandal, another triumph for the BBC’s enemies. However often its governance is restructured – twice already by the Conservatives – no journalism is ever iron-clad against future trouble. The vultures are circling. Priti Patel on the Andrew Marr Show warned that “all options, naturally, will be considered” for the BBC’s proper “governance, accountability and transparency”. She joins the epic groundswell of hypocrisy, her behaviour contrary to the ministerial code and yet she escaped unscathed, her untransparent, under-governed Home Office still abusing Windrush victims and randomly imprisoning European travellers. But this is open season. Continue reading...

The killing a year ago sparked a justified, constructive anger at racial injustice that is still felt around the worldIt was all supposed to blow over in a few days. Thomas Jefferson once said of Black Americans that “their griefs are transient”. These were people who lived life with a more muted emotional palette than everybody else. As their pain was fickle and their depths of feeling shallow, their lives were more expendable than others’. An unemployed Black American in his mid-40s with a criminal record, George Floyd’s life wasn’t supposed to add up to much, especially in our age of mass distraction. Perhaps his name would trend on Twitter for a while. Perhaps there would be a handful of marches. But inevitably, we would soon all move on to more important matters. We always do.After all, it is difficult to imagine a more mundane police encounter than the one facing the officers who confronted Floyd for apparently buying cigarettes with a counterfeit $20 bill a year ago. This is not a scenario that should produce a world-changing event. And it wouldn’t have done, had things unfolded a little differently. With last month’s conviction of Derek Chauvin leading commentators to argue that, in the end, the system does work, it is worth remembering the direction that this case was taking before it sparked a global movement. Continue reading...

European Union leaders have agreed to impose economic sanctions on Belarus. They have also called on their airlines to avoid the former Soviet republic's airspace, while authorising work to ban Belarusian airlines from European skies and airports. 'Belarus used its control over its airspace in order to perpetrate a state hijacking, therefore the safety and security of flights through Belarus airspace can no longer be trusted,' said the head of the bloc's executive, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen

Governor has said he plans to sign bill despite objections from law enforcement groups, who say it will endanger the public and policeTexas is poised to remove one of its last major gun restrictions – despite widespread objections – after lawmakers approved a bill that would allow people to carry handguns without a license, and the background check and training that go with it.The state’s Republican-dominated legislature approved the measure Monday, sending it to the governor, Greg Abbott, who has said he will sign it despite objections. Continue reading...

May opinion poll finds that 53% of Republicans believe Trump is the ‘true president’ compared with 3% of DemocratsA majority of Republicans still believe Donald Trump won the 2020 US presidential election and blame his loss to Joe Biden on baseless claims of illegal voting, according to a new Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll.The 17-19 May national poll found that 53% of Republicans believe Trump, their party’s nominee, is the “true president” now, compared with 3% of Democrats and 25% of all Americans. Continue reading...

President wanted George Floyd Justice in Policing Act passed by 25 May, on anniversary of police killing but bill is stalled in the SenateJoe Biden will on Tuesday meet the family of George Floyd on the first anniversary of his murder by police in Minneapolis – but miss his own deadline for police reform to address racial injustice.Related: Can Black Lives Matter LA dismantle the powerful police unions? Continue reading...

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Open letter comes amid a deepening split in Democratic ranks between progressives and more centrist figuresMore than 500 Democratic party staffers and alumni ofJoe Biden’s 2020 campaign have signed an open letter calling for the US president to do more to protect Palestinians and hold Israel accountable for its actions in and over Gaza, where a ceasefire currently holds.Related: Israeli police shoot dead Palestinian knife attacker in Jerusalem Continue reading...

Bartram Trail high school in Florida censored 80 yearbook photos, while portraits of males were unchangedA high school in Florida will refund the cost of its yearbooks after a member of staff digitally altered images of dozens of female students to hide their chests and shoulders.The decision by Bartram Trail high school to censor 80 photographs, many with crude digital editing, angered parents and students. Some accused administrators of “making girls feel ashamed of their bodies”. Continue reading...

There could well be more high-profile victories to come from a player who never believed his time on golf’s frontline was overIt may seem typical after a shock sporting outcome for the champion to insist he or she always had belief they could defy the odds. In the case of Phil Mickelson, the level of continued dedication to his profession makes earlier confidence entirely believable.At the age of 50 years, 11 months and seven days, Mickelson became the oldest champion in major history amid moving scenes at the US PGA Championship. What came after was not so much an explanation of how Mickelson reached the finest achievement of his career but insistence of how he never believed his time on golf’s frontline was over. Continue reading...